This invention relates to an active containing particle of a construction which makes it suitable for incorporation in liquid compositions. Furthermore the invention relates a processes for manufacturing active containing particles and liquid compositions, such as liquid detergents, comprising the active containing particle. The invention also relates to the use of the active containing particles and liquid compositions comprising the active containing particle.
Detergent products in the form of liquid are often considered to be more convenient to use than are dry powdered or particulate detergent products. Said detergents have therefore found substantial favour with consumers. Such detergent products are readily measurable, speedily dissolved in the wash water, capable of being easily applied in concentrated solutions or dispersions to soiled areas on garments to be laundered and are non-dusting. They also usually occupy less storage space than granular products. Additionally, such detergents may have incorporated in their formulations materials which could not withstand drying operations without deterioration, which operations are often employed in the manufacture of particulate or granular detergent products.
Although said detergents have a number of advantages over granular detergent products, they also inherently possess several disadvantages. In particular, detergent composition components which may be compatible with each other in granular products may tend to interact or react with each other. Thus components such as enzymes or other actives can be especially difficult to incorporate into liquid detergent products while maintaining an acceptable degree of stability of the enzymes.
Solid enzyme containing particles are known to the art from various disclosures as well as their use in dry powder detergents. See for examples: Michael S. Showell (editor); Powdered detergents; Surfactant Science Series; 1998; vol. 71; page 140-142; Marcel Dekker.
However, the use of solid composite particles comprising actives such as enzymes in liquid compositions such as detergents has not been thoroughly explored field. Only a few disclosures relevant for this field have been found such as WO 96/10073 disclosing xe2x80x9cNonaqueous bleach-containing liquid detergent compositionsxe2x80x9d; WO 97/00938 disclosing xe2x80x9cNonaqueous, particulate-containing liquid detergent compositions with alkyl benzene sulfonate surfactantxe2x80x9d; WO 99/00471 disclosing xe2x80x9cNon-aqueous liquid detergent compositions containing enzyme particles having reduced densityxe2x80x9d and WO 99/99/00478 disclosing xe2x80x9cNon-aqueous liquid detergent compositions containing enzyme particlesxe2x80x9d. For the present invention also the disclosures U.S. Pat. No. 4,016,040; U.S. Pat. No. 4,713,245; U.S. Pat. No. 5,198,353; U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,324,445; 5,492,646 are prior art.